The Iraq Study Group's (ISG) recommendation to increase the number of U.S. military advisers for the Iraq army while decreasing combat units would require significant air support, one of the panel's co-chairmen said Dec. 7. "Air support is clearly needed in large quantities," Democrat Lee Hamilton, a former Indiana congressman, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.
HOUSTON - NASA's plans to work from a base on the moon, instead of flying dispersed sortie missions on the Apollo model, will require a beefy lander to carry the habitation modules and other elements successive crews will leave behind for future use.
The British Defense Ministry on Dec. 7 announced it is launching a full-scale unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator, with the first flight planned for 2010. The program, named Taranis after the Celtic god of war, will be led by BAE Systems, with Rolls-Royce, Smiths, and Qinetiq as team members. The 124 million pound ($ 243 million) effort will initially run for four years, and builds on previously classified work carried out by the Defense Ministry and BAE.
WIND AND CLOUD: China was due to launch a second geostationary weather satellite Dec. 8, and will send up a sun-synchronous meteorological spacecraft in the second half of next year. The satellite scheduled for this month - Fengyun 2D - will extend the coverage of Fengyun 2C, which is already in geosynchronous orbit, and each will act as a backup for the other, the country's meteorological office says. Next year's launch will put into orbit the "second-generation" Fengyun 3 satellite, state media reports.
NATO SELECTION: The Defense Department has announced that Peter Flory has been selected to serve as NATO assistant secretary general for defense investment (ASG/DI) beginning in January. As the ASG/DI, he will be responsible for the promotion of NATO armaments cooperation policies and programs, and for military common funding. Flory has served as U.S. assistant defense secretary for international security policy since August 2005.
The story "Air Force generals issue call to arms for more funds" (Dec. 6) incorrectly spelled the name of U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Arthur Lichte, assistant vice chief of staff. A Dec. 7 story concerning water on the surface of Mars had an inaccurate headline. Images of the martian surface taken by the Mars Global Surveyor showed deposits which indicated the flow of water.
NEW YORK - U.S. Air Force officials will increasingly stress that acquisition programs field early models specifically without many potential add-on capabilities, and ideally within six years of preliminary design approval, according to Maj. Gen. David Edgington.
TOWED ARRAYS: Lockheed Martin Corp. said Dec. 7 that the U.S. Navy's recently awarded TB-34 towed array system contract could be worth as much as $47 million if production options for up to 74 TB-34 towed arrays and 52 array interface hardware units are exercised. The Navy weeks ago awarded an initial $9 million award to the company for fat-line towed bodies, interface hardware and associated services after competition (DAILY, Nov. 28). All assembly work for the contract will be done at the company's facility in Syracuse, N.Y., and should wrap up by December 2009.
GATES OFFICIAL: Robert Gates will take over as defense secretary Dec. 18, and the Defense Department will honor current Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at a Pentagon ceremony Dec. 15, the DOD said Dec. 7. The Senate confirmed Gates Dec. 6 by a vote of 95-2. Only Republican Sens. Jim Bunning (Ky.) and Rick Santorum (Pa.), who lost re-election bids last month, voted against Gates.
JAMMERS: The U.S. Naval Air Systems Command has awarded ITT Industries Avionics Division a $76.08 million contract modification for fiscal 2007 full-rate production Lot IV of 46 AN/ALQ-214(V)2 On-Board Jammers, a component of the F/A-18 E/F Integrated Defensive Electronic Countermeasure. The award runs through November 2009.
HEAVY SHOWERS: Meteroids are hitting the moon's surface much more frequently than scientists originally thought, possibly adding to the need to beef up the shelter available to future lunar base crews. Over the past year, scientists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center have recorded as least 11 impacts with enough energy to be visible as flashes of heat and light from Earth - four times more than computer models predicted.
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is asking Robert Gates, the nominee to take over as Defense Secretary, to withhold release of a controversial request for proposals for the Air Force's tanker replacement program until providing assurance that a number of competitive issues are addressed. McCain, a senior member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sent the letter to Gates Dec. 1; Gates' confirmation hearing took place Dec. 5.
GROUND DATA NETWORK: France and Germany have agreed to construct a ground data network that will allow the two countries to independently program and access data on each other's intelligence satellites. The network, known as E-SGA (the German acronym for European satellite-based reconnaissance) will serve France's Helios II optical surveillance spacecraft, the first of which is already in orbit, and Germany's SARLupe radar imaging constellation, to be deployed starting Dec. 19.
COMS-1 CONTRACT: Arianespace has landed a contract to launch South Korea's Coms-1, a hybrid satellite earmarked for broadband/multimedia communications, ocean monitoring and weather forecasting applications. Under the award - Arianespace's 12th of the year - the 2.6 metric-ton spacecraft will be launched between late 2008 and mid-2009. Coms-1 is being built by EADS Astrium using a communications payload provided by the Korean Aerospace Research Institute, the satellite's owner.
LEVY BREAK: The Defense Department has adopted as final, with changes, an interim rule amending Defense Federal Acquisition Regulations to address the effect of Internal Revenue Service levies on contract payments. The rule requires DOD contractors to promptly notify the contracting officer if a levy may result in an inability to perform a contract - short of in all instances when a levy is imposed.
SPACE PACT: France and the U.S. plan to sign a broad-ranging space cooperation agreement setting down mutual responsibilities and liabilities in the many areas in which the two countries collaborate, according to Yannick d'Escatha, head of French national space agency CNES. The pact, to be inked in Paris in January by NASA administrator Mike Griffin and French research minister Francois Goulard, is intended to facilitate cooperation by replacing the multiple ad-hoc accords that have governed joint programs until now.
NEW YORK - Buffeted by the Army's flanking maneuver over budget making this year, as well as unfunded needs and desires of its own, the Air Force is ramping up calls to boost defense spending to allow it to recapitalize its aging aircraft and boost its buying power, two generals said to the Credit Suisse and Aviation Week's aerospace and defense conference Dec. 5.
After a failed effort to convert them, and despite a yawning requirement-capability gap, the U.S. Coast Guard has decided to suspend normal operations of eight converted 123-foot patrol boats. "I suspended the operation of all eight 123-foot cutters to ensure the continued safety of our crews as we assess additional structural damage recently discovered aboard this class of cutter," Adm. Thad Allen, Coast Guard commandant, said last week.
Robert Gates, President Bush's choice to be the next Defense Secretary, said Dec. 5 he thinks the Army's Future Combat Systems (FCS) is "very important" and that he'll consult with Congress and others before making any decision on the controversial program. Gates, former head of the CIA and current president of Texas A&M University, surprised several members of the Senate Armed Services Committee with his willingness to work with Congress if he is confirmed as Donald Rumsfeld's successor at the Pentagon.
U.S. Air Force Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. John Bradley says he's concerned about the nation's strategic airlift capability, given the current procurement numbers for the C-17. "Frankly, I worry a lot about our strategic airlift capability in the United States," Bradley said during a Dec. 5 breakfast on Capitol Hill. "We have about the same amount of C-5s that we have had for a number of years, but we got rid of 280 C-141s."
The Army National Guard alone will receive almost $29 billion during the next five years to re-equip its units, and the Air National Guard will receive a similar sum, according to U.S. Army Lt. Gen. H. Steven Blum, National Guard Bureau chief. Blum has said Guard troops "want for nothing in combat," but return home to a "dangerously low resourcing level" for their stateside missions.
